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Looking for a great summer salad to enjoy? Look no further – it’s right here 😉
It has been quite hot here and the thought of eating things that require an oven are becoming less and less appealing. I have also been trying to come up with some quick & easy lunch ideas. I made a large batch of this and it lasted for lunches for 4 days, which was nice.

It has a secret ingredient! Black salt.

It’s optional, of course. However, it really does end that sulfur like “egg” flavour to things to reminisce about those egg salad days (which funnily enough I actually never had). It can be tough to track down and sometimes a wee bit pricy, but a little goes a long way and it lasts quite awhile. It lends a wonderful flavour to tofu scrambles too.

Place your chickpeas in a bowl and mash up with a potato masher or large fork. Combine the mayo, nutritional yeast and spices and stir until combined. Add the prepared dressing along with the celery, pepper and peas and combine with the chickpeas. Stir until well combined. I enjoy mine with gluten free crackers.

I never used to be a breakfast person. I would typically skip it or half hapharzadly grab some cheerios before dashing out the door. Now that I’ve grown into a routine with my beloved breakfast (and sometimes second breakfast if I have a good workout!), I look for some variety in my mornings. To be honest though, it’s typically a breakfast porridge of some kind or a smoothie. The above scramble is enjoyed regularly when we have “breakfast for dinner” nights though. This comes together very quickly – 30 minutes max.

Heat a cast iron pan (or wok/frying pan) on the stove on medium heat. Combine all of the dried spices in a small bowl. Add the olive oil and crumbled tofu and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. You may need to add a few splashes of water. Add 1 tbsp of the tamari and half of the spice mix and combine well, cooking for another 3 minutes or so. Remove the tofu from heat and set aside. In the same pan, sautée your veggies. When they have softened, add the last tablespoon of soy sauce, add the diced tomatoes, the artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes and the rest of the spice mix. Stir until heated through and add the tofu to it and mix it all up.

I topped this with sliced avocado and sunflower sprouts. Vegan sour cream would be really good too. Or hot sauce if that floats your boat. We had some vegan sausage patties and tater tots. So good!

I quite enjoy my dips. My favourite is artichoke dip. It’s a little heavy though, so I wanted to try and make something a little lighter. Annnnd maybe something pretty and themed for the upcoming holidays. I could help but notice the gorgeous bunches of kale aplenty at the market recently. Spinach dip is so done, why not switch it up?

Kale Dip (serves 4+ as a snack/appetizer)

1/2 cup of cashews (soaked 4 hours)
1/2 large bunch of kale, washed & de-stemmed
3/4 cup of navy beans (any white bean works – chickpeas would be great)
1/3 cup of nutritional yeast
1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped
the juice of a lemon
1 tsp each of salt & pepper
water as needed (I used about 1/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 350. Drain your cashews and throw them in the blender with the remaining ingredients. I added a few tablespoons of water to get to blend nicely. Bake for 20 minutes.

I drizzled a bit of extra virgin olive oil on top, sprinkled some paprika and scattered some pine nuts. Good enough to lick the bowl clean! I recently served this as an appetizer for dinner guests and they really liked it. We enjoyed ours with rice crackers and veggies. It’s Christmas pretty =D

Mmmmm I love me a good sandwich. I was super excited when I saw the theme for day #5 of Vegan MoFo!

#5 Best sandwich ever

One of my favourite sandwiches is roasted veggie, and my nooch breaded tofu sammich is a close second. And after having tracked down some of the most amazing basil I have ever tasted (I’m looking at you lemon basil!), I thought it would make an amazeballs spread for a sandwich.

Preheat the oven to 325. Cut the tofu into triangles, place them in a medium-sized bowl and pour the coconut aminos and olive oil on top and let it marinade while the oven preheats. Once it has marinated a bit, combine the nutritional yeast, salt & pepper in a small bowl and dredge the tofu through. Place the prepared tofu in an oven-safe dish and bake for 25 minutes.
While the tofu bakes, throw the basil, dill, pumpkin seeds, garlic, salt & pepper into a blender. Blend, adding a bit of water at a time until it comes out smooth and creamy.
I threw my baguettes into the oven during the last 10 minutes of tofu baking to warm & soften them up a bit.
Once ready, cut the baguettes in half, slather some lemon basil spread onto all of the slices, layer the tofu on one half of the bread and tomato slices and lettuce on the other half. I served mine up with some baked sweet potato “fries” and roasted green beans. Enjoy =)

I’m looking forward to seeing all the other MoFoers take on sandwiches =)

I was inspired by some Maui eats to create this tofu sandwich. A couple of the places we ate at had nutritional yeast breaded tofu and we fell in love with it. It was so good! And nothing like I have ever tried before at home. I like finding new ways to enjoy tofu, it’s so versatile!

Preheat your oven to 375. Mix your dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and your wet ingredients in a separate, small bowl. Place your tofu in a medium-sized bowl and pour the wet ingredients on it, ensuring to evenly coat it (use a baking brush if need be). Take your tofu pieces one at a time and dredge them through the bowl with the nutritional yeast and garlic powder, try and get a nice, thick coating on it. Line your tofu slices lengthwise on a lightly greased cookie sheet and cook for 25 minutes.

I baked some yukon gold “fries” with it as a side. I added a bit of vegan mayonnaise to the bun and topped the tofu burger with some tomato and lettuce.

It’s tomato season! Ooh and even better – basil season! Omg I wait all winter for fresh basil. And then I get wooed by spring seasonal foods and forget for awhile. And then BAM! I’m wandering around my local market and basil catches my eye. And what did I spy with my little eye at my local market this past Saturday? PURPLE basil!!! It actually tastes better than green. Oh yum.

Even better – one of my besties Brie gave me a whole bowl of tomatoes fresh from her garden. Fresh & local doesn’t get any better than this.

This recipe makes enough for 2 mini french baguette-style loaves of bread.

Bruschetta Mix

1 tsp of dried oregano

1/2 tsp of dried parsley

1/4 tsp of dried basil (add more if you don’t have fresh)

1 tsp of nutritional yeast

2 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Mix all of this up in a bowl.

Bruschetta Topping

1 large tomato, chopped

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 large handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped

a few sprigs of green onion, sliced

Add the bruschetta topping ingredients to the bruschetta mix and mis it up. Add it to some freshly toasted bread and sink your teeth in.

On my recent visit to the Great North, I bought a package of my favourite raw carrot wraps. They are so good!!! But super pricey :/ And since I can’t seem to find anything like that in the area I live anyway – it inspired me to try making my own.

Full disclosure… the food pictures suck! I had this great idea in mind of how beautiful they would look when I photographed them. I even planned a picnic lunch to the park and thought it would be a great photo session. Well… we ended up running late. The wraps didn’t “wrap” and we ate them more like bread. And the pictures aren’t great. I thought about re-making the wraps to re-take better pictures. And then said “screw it!”. I worked hard on these wraps and they turned out well and we really enjoyed our picnic lunch. I’ll continue to work on my food photography skills, but until then – here you are =)

6 sundried tomatoes, soaked in warm water for a few minutes (I found this a little much and would try 3 or 4 next time)

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

1/4 cup of nutritional yeast (if you don’t LOVE nooch like I do, try a couple of tablespoons)

1/4 cup of fresh parsley (or 1 tsp dried)

a pinch of salt & pepper

Add all of your ingredients to your food processor and whir it up until well combined. You will have to add some water until you get a nice cookie-dough texture (I don’t think I used quite 1/4 cup, I just poured a bit in at a time until it looked like a nice batter).

Spread half of the mixture onto a teflex sheet and the other half on another sheet and dehydrate for 5 hours at 115f. Check it after 4 hours, it may be done, or it may need another hour.

We had a lovely lunch and here are some pics my hubby snapped of the gorgeous rose garden in bloom:

I love this last one. Isn’t it gorgeous? It looks like a sunset rose. I have no idea what kind it is, but I like my name for it =)

Sunny came along too!

Although she didn’t get to enjoy a wrap, she did feast on some lovely cucumber slices.

Have a great rest of the week! See you all back here Friday for Healthy Vegan Friday!

I LOVE wraps! They are so good and make a fantastic meal… but with my gluten sensitivity, it’s not always easy to find wraps at the store without scary sounding ingredients in them. Sometimes I need to be a little creative. Nori sheets are a staple in my pantry – they are quick & easy to use and make a delicious wrap.

It’s easy to just spread some hummus or guac on them, but sometimes I feel like putting a little more effort into it. And I’ve been using cashews for so much lately, I figured I would give sunflower seeds a try =)

Sunflower Pâté

1 cup of sunflower seeds (soaked for a at least 4 hours – I soaked mine in the morning and they were ready late afternoon)

1/2 cup of nutritional yeast

the juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp of tahini

2 tbsp of coconut yogurt (this is optional – I just find it gives a good “cheesy” taste)

a sprinkle of sea salt

Place all ingredients in your blender or food processor and turn on and add a bit of water until you reach the consistency you would like.

This was enough to make 8 small nori wraps (4 sheets total) and there was some leftover. I have another recipe coming soon to show you how to use the leftovers =)

Take some nori sheets, I usually cut mine in half. Put 1 tsp of paste on half of the sheet and smooth it out, put your favourite veggies on as toppings (I used red peppers, cucumber, carrot & sunflower sprouts), use the lemon you used for the pâté and rub the juice end at the end of the roll to help it stick better together once rolled. Roll your it up and that’s a wrap haha ;p

Who loves mac n’ cheeze? Growin up, I was practically raised off of Kraft Dinner. Not for lack of trying to get me to eat actual vegetables on my parents end. No, no. I just happened to be one of those bratty kids that would only eat certain things, wouldn’t try new things and would go on a hunger strike if I didn’t what I wanted.

When I first went vegan, I was a little sad at the prospect of giving up my beloved Kraft Dinner, but I have since found new and healthier ways to enjoy it. My original recipe can be found here. This new recipe just jazzes things up a bit.

1 cup of fresh corn (or frozen if you can’t get your hands on any fresh)

1 cup of peas (I had to use frozen, I couldn’t find fresh at the market)

1 red pepper, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 jalapeno, seeded & minced (leave some seeds if you like spice – I do not!)

1 large tomato, roughly chopped

4 leaves of chard, torn into bite-sized pieces

Start cooking the noodles according to the package directions. If you do use the Tinkyada ones, I tend to cook them 1-2 minutes less than the package instructs as I like them slightly chewy and not super soft and I also add a splash of oil immediately upon adding the noodles to the water and stir them up so they don’t stick together.

Warm a couple of tbsp of water (or oil) in a pot and sautée your veggies for approximately 5 minutes. While the noodles & veggies cook – get the sauce ready.

Cashew Coco Mac Cheeze

1/2 of cashews soaked in warm water for a few hours

1/4 cup of coconut milk

1 tbsp of nutritional yeast

1 tsp of turmeric

1/2 tsp of paprika

a pinch of cayenne

sea salt & pepper added to taste

Blend or process all of the ingredients until smooth & creamy.

Once the noodles are done cooking, drain them and add them to the sautéed veggies and add the sauce and stir to combine.

This can serve 4 hungry people on it’s own or more people if you have a nice, big salad to go with it. Enjoy & happy trails =)

So I’ve been a bad bloggie buddy I haven’t been keeping on top of reading your posts. It is my goal this weekend to get all caught up! I’ve been going through some things lately (like being homesick…) and I’m just trying to get back in the swing of things. You guys all rock my socks =D Have a fantabulous weekend!!

Happy Friday everyone!!!! Yay it’s the weekend =D I’m excited about this weekend as I managed by some miracle to convince my husband to go hiking with me. I normally go with some girlfriends, which is fun! But I prefer to spend most of my weekend time with him since I don’t see him much during the week. I have been avoiding hiking lately to spend time with him, but I talked him into coming along. We’re going to be hiking Yosemite this fall, so I thought it would be prudent to get some practice in as Yosemite is a full day of hiking. Should be fun!

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Food! I have a recipe for you all. It’s not super creative, or extravagant. But it can be thrown together in 20 minutes flat and tastes great.

I had mentioned earlier that my husband was on a fairly restrictive diet to try and figure out some food sensitivities. He has had his follow up appt with his specialist and dairy appears to be one of the culprits. I am not shocked at all. He’s decided to avoid it as much as possible from now on (yay!). I had been getting excited at the prospect of his elimination diet coming to an end… but it looks like we have at least another 6 weeks. No garlic, onion, mushrooms, beans. Yikes. Good thing I’m creative and a master at handling special diets.

So what do you do when you have a super restrictive diet, you come home from vacation without much energy to do anything, let alone cook a half decent meal and have almost nothing in the fridge?
You take whatever you have in the fridge and make an awesome and random stirveg out of it!

Random Stirveg:

-a bunch of veggies (I used a couple of carrots, a bunch of bok choy, the last two leaves of kale, a large zucchini and our last red pepper)

Can I get a heck ya for a super quick and tasty meal?? I served this up along side the rest of our sad looking green beans sautéed with a bit of coconut oil and minced ginger.

This weeks recipe has been brought to you by a lack of time getting caught up after coming back from vacation. Next weeks recipe will be brought to you by having extra time on my hands to make something a little more fun ;p

Come on back Monday where I give a recap of my most awesome vacation. In the meantime, have a great weekend =) I will try to re-catch up on my blog reading again!

I'm Kimmy, a holistic nutritionist on the path to healthy living and loving myself. I want to share my passion for kale and chocolate with you. I focus on allergy-friendly recipes and you will find some appetizing healthy eats as well as some delicious indulgences here. ♥